The present invention relates to a compact post-mix drink dispenser with improved marketing appeal, easy-change graphics, smaller footprint, refrigeration efficiency, easier service and lower manufacturing costs. More specifically, the present invention relates to a compact drink dispenser having a cylindrical-shaped housing which can simulate a shape of various beverage containers such as cans, bottles, cups or glasses; and which has circular flow paths of product and cooling fluids to ensure more efficient refrigeration of the products being dispensed.
The majority of existing post-mix beverage drink dispensers have box-like housings which are formed from ten or more pieces of sheet metal requiring as many as thirty bending operations in order to secure the panels together in a fluid-type manner. These structures are relatively expensive to manufacture.
These conventional box-like housings also generally include fixed product graphics on the front and sidewalls thereof, which need to be shipped to refurbishment centers in order to change the graphics to provide any desired new looks.
Many of these known beverage dispensers also include rather complex built-in refrigeration systems within the housing which are difficult to service.
In addition box-like, rectangular housings require a larger footprint than needed because of dead space in the corners of the housings. Therefore, box-like housings take up more space on the counter of a fast food restaurant than desirable.
Furthermore the box-like housings usually include rectangular-shaped product cooling lines and evaporator coils which track the rectangular contour of the box-like housings. Rectangular flow paths therein include dead corners in the water bath and abrupt bends in the product cooling lines which create large pressure drops.
In addition the box-like housings require a larger water bath than needed due to the presence of the dead corners in the rectangular housings. This results in slower cool down of the water and less predictability of the ice bank shape and inside surface characteristics.
In box-like housings the ice bank tries to form a round inner surface. But this can cause freezing of the water (soda) and syrup, thus stopping or reducing the flow of the water or syrup therein.
Many existing drink dispensers utilizing refrigerated water baths also need improved carbonator devices for use in those water baths. It would be desirable to be able to reduce the number of required components of those carbonators and the heat transfer efficiency thereof.
Generally compact drink dispensers also utilize a single dispenser nozzle for dispensing plural products resulting in flavor carry over problems.
Existing drink dispensers having refrigerated water baths generally place flow control regulators downstream of the product cooling lines therein because they are more accessible and less cumbersome to manually adjust. However, if this adjustment problem could be solved it would be advantageous to place the flow regulators upstream of the water bath where temperatures are higher. As is known small changes in low temperatures of fluids create large changes in viscosity; but this is not true for high temperatures.
While some drink dispensers are known in the art which utilize cylindrical housings and associated cylindrical carbonators, such devices do not recognize all of the potential advantages of these cylindrical shapes which are useful in overcoming the above described problems of box-like housing structures.
Accordingly, a need in the art exists for a compact drink dispenser which overcomes all of the above disadvantages of box-like drink dispenser structures associated with the majority of the commercial post-mix dispenser units in the marketplace.